Considering bards are already sick tanks, and that their power comes 90% from their songs... do you guys as IMM's think Imperials maybe need to get toned down or have some kind of penalty? Especially all the humans with the swashbuckler edge.

I simply propose that if an Imperial bard choses to place tactics on defense, they should have a chance to miss songs from being distanced, or have all their songs weakened in power.

I've played multiple characters that line up against hero Imperial bards including wood elf bard, dwarf warrior, and multiple shifters, and it just seems like something maybe needs to happen about it.

>Considering bards are already sick tanks, and that their
>power comes 90% from their songs... do you guys as IMM's think
>Imperials maybe need to get toned down or have some kind of
>penalty?

Not especially, no. I also wouldn't generally rate bards as sick or even really good tanks.

An Imperial bard using imperial defense is probably the best tank of any bard. They're also doing the least damage of any bard while lagged or unable to sing. It's not a purely good trade-off and it's not like I haven't seen it get such bards killed.

You mean you see a lot of bards who rely on melee damage?

It is REAL hard to manage to pull of total command denial to a bard.

We've seen storms with greetings who hasn't managed, eventually the bard has gotten distortion in, and the giant misses a bash, when the bash is missed the giant is screwed 99% of the time. (Though I must say that the giants I've seen should have been able to escape at least, not die as they do have.)

I'm not sure what to do, because it's only with bards that imperial defence gets so hot. Perhaps it is viable, your statistics will say for certain I'd think.

But, my opinion would be that imperial defence, for bards that is, should be toned down just a little somehow.

That's just my two cents. :D

How about all those times the Bard manages to out-melee even sword-giant bash specs thanks to damage redux?

Is -morale at play there, or is that something that's caused purely by RNG?

It's the kind of strange phenomenon I've noticed over the years. Both with other bards I'm lagging, and with my own battle bard who just had resist/resisting and yet could still out-melee bashers.

You can lag a bard for a short bit. I have noticed that bard defenses can fend you off long enough (most especially imperials) until they can sing symphonic echoes. It doesn't always get you the first time, however, I can't think of many times that the combination of my lag and his/her failing echoes has produced a kill for me. Once you get distorted, the fight is so much harder. I honestly don't think echoes makes bards over powered. I think it is a good skill for them to have. I do think that compared to some other classes, bards are much more formidable opponents. They have the ability to do well by themselves, but, when you fight them in a group their power grows exponentially.

It kind of seems like bards were designed to be more of a support class, and that is the way they should be kept. It doesn't really seem to make sense that they can be very deadly solo but also grow in power the more people you add around them. Most other classes in the game do not share this same duality.

Actually I'd say every class that is good at killing is much better so with a group. That applies to pretty much every offensive power. Take flurry bash spec and give him a trip spammer or neuro spammer or healer and he's significantly more improved and lethal than a bard is. Bards are good, possibly even overpowered (only IMHO due to fiend) but I disagree with your assessment that what makes them overpowered is their support capabilities.

However, I think that bards support better than most other clases. The main reason is symphonic echoes. There isn't a class out there that has the potential to protect -all- of his/her groupmates from attacks. Yes, a giant bashing behind you is effective and has the potential to prevent you from using attacks. However, there are ways out there to prevent bashing, and the giant can only bash one person at a time.

Don't forget about the other maeldiction capabilities that bards have as well as the ability to dish heavy damage.

All of these abilities make bards a tough fight one on one. But, when fighting group vs. group the bard is a huge asset. If you take a fight of 3 on 3 and one group has a bard, you will see the strategy often taken by the group without the bard is to target the bard with the hopes of eliminating him/her quickly and preventing distortion. If everyone gets distorted the fight becomes much more difficult to win.